Quote:
Originally Posted by ngcles
Hi Gary K & All,
You guys weren't the only ones!
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G'day Les,
Great story and it goes to show that it's pretty tough for an object like this
to pass by without anyone noticing.
There are just so many eyes and
cameras looking up these days!
Having said that, there is no way you want to pass one of these objects
over without following them up. Just ask Lachlan MacDonald why Comet Lee
is not called Comet MacDonald.
Hat's off to Darren being on the ball.
Rob McNaught emailed me to qualify that the ephemeris for Boattini is nailed.
The reason we did not get a hit immediately on the MPC was due to
our own rough RA/Dec estimate and the time it took us to then Google and
enter the MPC checker form rather than the elements being wrong.
Normally Monte would be able to do a plate solve on the spot but for
some reason it was not happening. Similarly we had downloaded
the orbital orbital elements for comets from the MPC into TheSky but we
were damned if we could get them to appear as icons on the screen at their
computed positions, otherwise we would have spotted Boattini earlier.
Rob advises it is important to either get the position as accurate as you can,
including knowing your own lat/long and current UT or at least know what the
uncertainties in your measurements are.
Les, with regards the dial-up modem problems, if anyone has a NextG
phone on the field it might be worth checking if they can get a signal.
Most handsets can be interfaced to a laptop via the appropriate cable to
provide wireless broadband connectivity. The data charges are expensive, at
up to a couple of dollars per MB, but would probably be cheaper than calling Brian
Marsden.
Once again, thanks for the story which is fabulous!
Best regards
Gary